Willie and The Electric Horseman

December 21, 1979 ~ Willie Nelson makes his acting debut in the Sydney Pollack film The Electric Horseman, starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda. He also sings five songs for the soundtrack, including the #1 country hit “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys.”

“I learned my own lines, but tended to bend them my own way – or borrow from writer friends,” Nelson recalled in his 2015 autobiography. “For the most part, though, I did what Redford predicted I’d do: I said what came naturally.”

Nelson gets rave reviews for his performance and partners with Pollack for two more films: Honeysuckle Rose (1980) and Songwriter(1984).